HOW you ask yourself why am I depressed really does matter

I recently read an article that interested me as it is something I have noticed with clients with depression. HOW you ask yourself a question, look at what’s going on and why, REALLY does matter. To distance yourself from what’s going on, be able to ask why am I feeling what I am, what’s happened, when, with whom in an analytical way IS, it seems more effective at breaking that cycle of negative thoughts, behaviours and feelings.

Talking therapy can really enable you to recognise that pattern of negativity and open up different ways of asking questions of yourself and looking at yourself. The fact that the study showed that people with even major depression can choose to distance really matters too. Choice used as a word doesn’t sit with clients at first, yet is an important part of the process, even if that original choice to react in a certain way was effective when the decision was first made. It isn’t any more, hence people email, phone or text and ask for therapy. People with depression will often share that they are drowning, to accept that ‘self emersion’ is a possibility and to work with choice is a great goal for anyone with depression. Please note i do use the word goal as most people with depression reading this will state categorically there I have no choice, which I totally understand.

It’s an interesting article based on incredibly experience proving research!

Rumination is a key characteristic of depression. Individuals with depression have high levels of negative affect and tend to recycle negative thoughts and emotions. This behavior of ruminating on negative experiences perpetuates the cycle of depression and increases the severity and length of depressive symptoms. How individuals approach their negative emotions has been the subject of much research on depression. In a recent study, Ethan Kross of the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan looked at two different ways in which people view negative thoughts in order to determine if one increased depressive symptoms more than the other.

In the study, Kross evaluated 51 individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 45 individuals with no history of depression as they analyzed their emotions in relation to a negative life event. The participants were instructed to view their feelings using either a self-distanced approach or a self-immersed approach. Kross gauged how these two perspectives affected negative affect, avoidance, and emotional content and discovered several interesting findings. First, Kross found that both the MDD and non-MDD participants were able to self-distance. This is a key finding because many depressed individuals do not automatically choose to use this perspective when in the midst of troubling feelings but may be inherently capable of doing so. Kross said, “Second, depressed participants who analyzed their feelings from a self-distanced perspective displayed lower levels of depressive thought accessibility and negative affect than their self-immersed counterparts.” These same individuals also gained more awareness of the negative situations and achieved a sense of closure that the self-immersed group did not.

Kross did not find any differences in the levels of avoidance, regardless of how the participants viewed their negative events. Overall, the research demonstrated that individuals with depression do not always have negative outcomes when they question the circumstances that led to the negative emotions. Rather, their emotional outcome is predicted more by how they ask the questions. Specifically, a self-distanced approach of analyzing emotions seems to lead to a more adaptive and positive outcome than a self-immersed approach, which appears to contribute to further rumination and negative emotions.